2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

winnow myself somewhere. “Easy,” Cassian said, banking right. I looked below to see
Mor still plummeting, then winnow again into nothing.
No sign or glimmer of Rhys’s presence near or behind us. A few yards ahead, Azriel
was a swift shadow over the black water. Toward the landmass we were now approaching.
Hybern.
No lights burned on it. But it felt … old. As if it were a spider that had been waiting in
its web for a long, long time.
“I’ve been here twice,” Cassian murmured. “Both times, I was counting down the
minutes until I could leave.”
I could see why. A wall of bone-white cliffs arose, their tops flat and grassy, leading
away to a terrain of sloping, barren hills. And an overwhelming sense of nothingness.
Amarantha had slaughtered all her slaves rather than free them. She had been a
commander here—one of many. If that force that had attacked Velaris was a vanguard … I
swallowed, flexing my hands beneath my gloves.
“That’s his castle ahead,” Cassian said through clenched teeth, swerving.
Around a bend in the coast, built into the cliffs and perched above the sea, was a lean,
crumbling castle of white stone.
Not imperious marble, not elegant limestone, but … off-white. Bone-colored. Perhaps a
dozen spires clawed at the night sky. A few lights flickered in the windows and balconies.
No one outside—no patrol. “Where is everyone?”
“Guard shift.” They’d planned this around it. “There’s a small sea door at the bottom.
Mor will be waiting for us there—it’s the closest entrance to the lower levels.”
“I’m assuming she can’t winnow us in.”
“Too many wards to risk the time it’d cost for her to break through them. Rhys might be
able to. But we’ll meet him at the door on the way out.”
My mouth went a bit dry. Over my heart, the Book said, Home—take me home.
And indeed I could feel it. With every foot we flew in, faster and faster, dipping down
so the spray from the ocean chilled me to my bones, I could feel it.
Ancient—cruel. Without allegiance to anyone but itself.
The Cauldron. They needn’t have bothered learning where it was held inside this castle.
I had no doubt I’d be drawn right to it. I shuddered.
“Easy,” Cassian said again. We swept in toward the base of the cliffs to the sea door
before a platform. Mor was waiting, sword out, the door open.
Cassian loosed a breath, but Azriel reached her first, landing swiftly and silently, and
immediately prowled into the castle to scout the hall ahead.
Mor waited for us—her eyes on Cassian as we landed. They didn’t speak, but their